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Digital Twin

The boundaries between physical and digital reality are increasingly blurred by the appearance of Digital Twins. This concept is revolutionizing the way we design, analyze and optimize things. Use the Digital Twin of your products as an impetus for your company's success!

No data? No deal.

Many industries and companies already rely on  virtual commissioning (VIBN) . VIBN is particularly widespread in the automotive, aerospace, manufacturing and robotics industries.

Reasons include:

  1. Testing the physical implementation to save time and costs and to identify problems early on
  2. Optimizing behavior and improving performance by simulating different scenarios
    in the virtual environment
  3. Simulating complex scenarios without impacting real production or operations

Simulation is not possible without intelligent engineering data!
The product development process can only be shortened if information such as kinematics, motion profiles and acceleration data is available. The example above shows the VIBN of a plant.

3Dfindit offers this intelligent data. In our example model, you can start the animation using the "Play" button at the bottom right next to the AR functionality.

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The standard for Digital Twins

The Asset Administration Shell is the digital image of a physical product – structured, standardized, and ready for use in Industry 4.0 applications. CADENAS enables companies to adopt this technology early, ensuring information is delivered efficiently, in a standardized format, and across manufacturers.

4D Data = 3D Data + behavior and time

Rome wasn’t built in a day — and the same goes for Digital Twins.
Just like building a city, creating a Digital Twin can be a gradual process. As shown in the example on the right, it all starts with the geometry of your product data. From there, you can enrich it step by step with attributes and properties.

Think of it like climbing a staircase — you decide how far you want to go, and how quickly. Every step adds more value and brings you closer to a fully realized Digital Twin.

Interested in delivering Digital Twins? 

Why is intelligent engineering data important?

Smart engineering data brings real benefits and some key requirements that play a crucial role in developing and running complex systems and products efficiently.

Efficient product development

Engineers use data to run simulations and iterate on design projects. This accelerates development time and time to market.

Integration of IoT and sensor data

This opens up opportunities to monitor and optimize throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Maintenance and repair

Intelligent engineering data plays an important role in plant and system maintenance and repair.

Save time while providing higher quality data. 

A diagram compares the time and steps needed for creating a digital model via two processes. The 'Digital Zombie' process involves multiple manual steps totaling 80 minutes, with potential errors. The steps include downloading a file, converting it to CAD, adding kinematics, organizing data, adding weight, simulation data, importing to PLM, and adding a company number. The '3Dfindit Engineering Data' process, contrastingly, simplifies the task into three automated steps: selecting a manufacturer part, automatic PLM import, and part synchronization, resulting in a ready-to-use digital twin in 4 minutes.

 

The automotive industry is one of the pioneers in the field of end-to-end data consistency.
They are trying to motivate their suppliers by raising awareness of why major car manufacturers need digital twins.

More information on the SAP / BMW project

CADENAS innovations in Digital Twin technology

AAS live

Bosch Rexroth presented a asset administration shell demonstrator at the Hannover Messe. Physical components have met their digital twins.

To the whole video

4D Data

"What is part of the 4D model?" - In his presentation, Constantin Liepert (Siemens) will address the topics surrounding the Digital Twin and the management shell.

To the whole video

Simulation

In the video on the left, Afag shows what virtual commissioning using ISG Virtuos can look like. On the right, the finished plant in the real world for comparison.

Conceptional Simulation

Geminiware supports intuitive and easy plant design with basic elements including virtual commissioning. Afterwards elements are exchanged by real digital twins.

Digital Twin everywhere

We at CADENAS try to use the Digital Twin everywhere, such as here in Microsoft Teams.

Industrial Metaverse

CADENAS models can be used natively in NVIDIA Omniverse, a real-time graphics collaboration platform for industrial simulation and other applications.

Efficient data exchange

Component manufacturers can transform their parts into digital twins using CADENAS APIs.  Via SAP BNAC, these can be made directly available to various OEMs.

FMI and FMU

With CADENAS geometries and FMU code, components can easily be prepared for a simulation in Siemens NX, for example.

Plant simulation

Digital twins via 3Dfindit directly available in fe.screen-sim for simulation, planning and virtual commissioning.

Plant simulation

3Dfindit integrates digital twins directly into Visual Components for simulation, planning and virtual commissioning.

Who is already developing Digital Twins with CADENAS?

Catalog Overview »

Zimmer Group

SCHUNK

Emerson | Afag

Catalog Overview »
Interested in delivering Digital Twins?

Which systems work with the CADENAS Digital Twin?

3Dfindit

The visual search engine for 3D CAD, CAE and BIM models

Siemens NX MCD

Mechatronics Concept Designer - 
Integrated tool for complex mechatronic product development and simulation

ISG Virtuos

Simulation and test software for complex industrial plants

NVIDIA Omniverse

Collaborative and interactive 3D environment for the design, simulation and visualization of digital content

The Standard for Digital Twins:

Fraunhofer IOSB defines a “Digital Twin” as a concept that brings together product models, machines, and their components using digital tools. This includes all relevant geometric, kinematic, and logic data. In essence, a Digital Twin is a digital representation of a physical asset on the factory floor — enabling simulation, control, and continuous improvement. In the context of Industry 4.0, working groups discuss Digital Twins alongside concepts like the Asset Administration Shell and Industry 4.0 components.

Component twins

Component twins are the basic building blocks of the Digital Twin and represent individual functioning components. Part twins are similar, but refer to components of lesser importance.

Asset twins

Asset twins are virtual representations created when two or more components interact to form a common system. Extensive performance data can be generated by analyzing these interactions. This data can be further processed to provide valuable insights that can be translated into concrete actions.

System or unit twins

System or unit twins are another level of Digital Twin. They allow you to see how different assets are assembled into a functioning overall system. System twins provide insight into how assets interact and can identify opportunities for performance improvements.

Learn more about digital twins

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